Red
by diesel weasel
Summary: pre movie, Captain Flint risies to power Flint X OC
1. Chapter 1

**Don't own TP R&R**

A tall man stood on the edge of the docks, though if the truth were be told he wasn't so much a 'man' as a humanoid, Nathaniel Flint was an incredibly rare species in the known universe as a 'space leviathan' of course humans tagged this name to them, in truth they were basically humanoid dragons, not one grown male was under six foot, they were powerful creatures, the average Space Leviathan could be anywhere from three to five times stronger than any human and were legendary warriors, most historical references about them were as berserks in some important battle.

What most people didn't know was under most circumstances if the right motivation was there they could be some of the most cunning and intelligent creatures in the known universe. But Flint didn't see himself that way; in his eyes he was just about average in every way shape and form, from his body, to his mental make-up, as well as his history. He had always lived in poverty; it had also never bothered him but now that the girl of his dreams promised herself to him had set him back to the point where his mind was blank for over a minute

Caitlyn wasn't as attractive as most of her kind but she was beautiful in a way only a fellow of her species could understand, she was a bit on the scrawny side and didn't have any suitors, most went to the more 'full' type, when she realized he an average but sweet person considered himself lucky to have her of all people, well let's just say that they really made a perfect match. Then any protector/provider instincts Flint had as a husband or a father suddenly kicked into high gear.

While they were not married quite yet he soon realized that even between the two of them they and any children they would mean in poverty, something he would not stand for. He knew by the look in her eyes that she would be loyal to him even if he were gone a decade, she would never get any suitors that would be his equal or greater.

He had been a merchant sailor before her, he loved space being exploration and adventure was in his DNA, but when he found her he happily pushed adventure aside for a two bit job making ships. But he had a friend, Calvin by the name who he had grown up with, his friend visited time to time and he was a captain of a privateer in employed in the navy. The navy often had smaller rival navies to deal with and if a quick fix for piracy had sprung up they would support it with almost a blind eye.

When Calvin heard his situation he was all too glad to help, his first mate had died earlier and he didn't believe his current quarter master deserved a promotion quite yet. Those years as a sailor would prove helpful for Flint soon as he signed on for two years aboard the viper as her first mate.

Caitlyn was just about in tears when she heard his plan so while she snuggled her have into the palm of his hand while he wiped her tears away breaking her down by all of his kindness he reminded her in these two years he could make as much in two decades in his current job. When he came back he would have enough money to start a small business which he could run and own and they could still get married and have a family in the prime of their youth.

Flint looked to his ship which would depart any minute now and he looked back at Caitlyn who was standing in the rear of the docks completely zeroed in on his figure. Flint mustered up all of his confidence to reassure her it would be alright, he shouldered his sack and tuned back to her one last time and tipped his battered leather tricorn at her and made his way to the ship.

He hadn't made more than ten feet when Caitlyn covered the distance between herself and him in less than three seconds and gave him a bone crushing hug that quickly left him out of breath. He turned once again to face and she slackened off for a second and when he turned she hugged him again with all of her strength and being (which made his bones creak) and she buried her face in his chest, not wanting to let go ever.

His stone exterior finally cracked and he one handedly returned the embrace with as much passion as hers. The bosun blew his whistle sounding they would cast off soon and they broke the embrace and stared into each other's eyes, words couldn't express what they were felling now.

"I will be back, I promise" and he meant it with every fiber in his being. He turned to face the unknown and boarded his ship to the unknown future.

**A/N: I don't really care whether you think this is crap or the best thing since cheese in a can REVIEWS and FEEDBACK help me improve the story**


	2. Chapter 2

**Don't own TP R&R**

Flint quickly went below decks and found a hammock that was not in use, he quickly stashed his gear for the voyage underneath it and quickly made his way back up the stairs. He towered over most creatures on the ship at a height of six foot eight; he wore brown worn work boots, with trousers that looked like they were made from a burlap sack. He had a red sash for a belt along with a simple black vest which was open and a tricorn.

He looked around admiring views he had not seen in a while now, the smell of space, tar and sweat reminded him of his days as a merchant sailor exploring and visiting distant worlds. But he quickly remembered he was not here for adventure though he would enjoy every moment of it, he was here to make money so Caitlyn and himself could live a peaceful life together.

Flint made his way to the stern of the ship and he saw at the wheel his old friend Calvin. Calvin himself was a part of an exotic species to say the least; while humanoid he had shiny scales that changed color with his mood. Calvin was like many captains a flamboyant individual, he dressed in some of his finer cloths in his wardrobe, and he was wearing a trimmed tricorn with a feather as well as a trimmed light blue coat with a silver handled rapier on his hip.

Of everyone on board Calvin was the only one who had any formal training with a sword, he could also beat everyone here if a fight but few people including Flint knew that if need be Calvin was more than ready to help with the rigging or repair a plank of he needed to.

Calvin then saw Flint and waved to him and motioned to him to stand beside him. When Flint did so Calvin grinned with pride as he motioned out to his ship "What do you think? The Viper is a fine ship?" and Flint nodded it was a fine ship, the Viper was a schooner type ship, not the fastest like the sloop classes, but she could carry more crew and cargo and weapons and still have more than enough speed to catch her targets. Unlike most ships her sails hung sideways, it seemed odd but she seemed to catch as much solar wind as an average rig, the sun reflected off her sails making the whole rig glow with gold. The hull planks seemed to be made out of some oak type wood but the inner planking such as the deck seemed to be made out of some fine wood, maple maybe?

"Yes sir if fine ship she is" Flint replied. Calvin nodded and looked around seeing it was about time they cast off, "Would you be so kind?" Calvin gestured to the crew. "Yes sir" he said and he strolled up to the railing "ALL HANDS TO STATIONS!" Flint shouted at the crew his deep voice carrying to all parts of the ship. They needed not to be told twice as they moved at full speed up the rigging and let lose all her solar sails, the golden sails jumped to life as she started to gather energy and yellow dots soon lit up going down the mast indicating the sails were gathering energy like they were supposed to.

The ship began to rise from the docks as the engines began to have life as energy started coming into their system. Then a yellow light began to blink and beep rapidly on the ships instrument panel and Calvin nodded to Flint. Flint then strode to a com tube that ran throughout the entire ship and he ordered "FULL SPEED AHEAD". The crew on deck quickly began to take hold of a nearby rigging or railing to not be pushed over, everyone that is except for flint who only sported a wide firm stance, he was 350 pounds of muscle with size sixteen feet. When the ships engines fired he only rocked back a inch and nothing more.

He began to see familiar views, the deep blue of space, and the countless stars that surrounded them from all sides. Flint looked to his left and saw a pod of space whales, as well on the right, several were on top of them as well and when he looked past the bow he spotted several space dolphins who seemed to enjoy racing with the viper and he chuckled at playfulness of the animals, no doubt they wouldn't be half as playful if they realized this ship was built to hunt down and destroy some of the most dangerous rouges in the galaxy.

Flint made his way back to his captains side and he whispered to his hear (and he had to crouch down just a bit) "I am afraid I'm a bit new to this whole new officer thing so I really don't know what to do now." Calvin looked at Flint and smiled as his scales went from light silver to a light gold. "Do you know anything about navigation?" Flint just replied "I know the basics but I'm afraid not much more past that." Calvin nodded and said "Come to my cabin and I will teach you the finer points of navigation, perhaps maybe even issue you a cutlass and teach you how to use it."


	3. Chapter 3

**Don't own TP R&R**

It had been over a week since the viper had left her port to chase pirates and now she was just outside the planet Barris. According to Calvin's sources, there is a pirate named Paul roaming this area with a bounty of 20,000 on the head on himself and his crew, so basically he is small time, only a threat to a cargo ship.

Flint had pushed himself hard to be a likeable officer, once a crew member got sick to the point where getting out of his hammock made him look miserable, so Flint took his night shift as well as made sure he got a extra helping of fruit. But the crew knew he had never been in combat before so he knew no true relationship could be made until the first battle. So Flint tried to learn as much about his cutlass as possible, it was longer than most cutlasses, not that the extra weight was a problem for Flint. He took every chance to spar with anyone he got, but mostly it was the captain and Flint learned fast how to find advantages and use them.

It was evening when the lookout spotted a sail, she was a sloop class ship, made for speed she kept a good distance between herself and the Viper. The captain looked at her through his spyglass; it does look like the ship Paul would be sailing wouldn't it? Hoist the colors and let's pay her a visit. Once the captain was sure that every cannon was manned he ordered the rest to ready their swords. Flint looked down once and eyed the handle of his sword nervously. Once the ships were within five hundred yards of each other the sloop fired, the helmsman pulled hard on the wheel to make sure the laser bolt didn't hit home, he swerved the ship so the she was no longer bearing down head on but now side by side and the captain ordered the people manning the cannons to broadside her. All hell broke loose.

The roar of the cannons was deafening, the Viper had three mid-sized cannons to broadside Paul's ship while the sloop only had one big one. While his ears were still ringing he went up to the railing to see only one of the broadsides hit home, he saw their only cannon with a man in the swivel seat. At three hundred yards with his extraordinary eyesight he saw he was basically making eye contact with the man on those cannon. Even though he was aiming for the cannon a foot away from Flint, he managed to jump ten feet away from the cannon and yelled "TAKE COVER!" and just a second later a laser bolt flew by right where his torso would have been.

Now running more by instincts than anything else in this hell people refer to as 'glorious battle' Flint jumped back on his feet like a wild cat. There was a man with a dozen rifles and he was passing them out to the crew members, Flint wasn't sure if the man doing this had the captains approval but Flint decided if not he would deal with it later. He snatched a rifle from the man's arm and he didn't protest, Flint moved to the stern to give the helmsman more cover and Flint picked his first target though the sights on the rifle as she was humming with life.

Flint fired at the man who just about killed him but his aim was low and Flint just shot his arm off. Even from the Viper Flint could hear the man howl with pain as blue blood gushed from the wound then another marksman from the viper managed a head shot ending the mans misery. Flint tuned to assess the damage on the viper and saw that one of the laser bolts had cleanly blown away one of the Vipers five sails, Flint then shouted "ALL MARKSMEN KEEP THEM OFF THAT DAMNED CANNON!" and Flint retuned to keeping any man who came within ten feet of that cannon on their toes.

By now the Viper was within fifty yards of the heavily damaged sloop and the captain yelled " (quarter master) YOU LEAD A BOARDING PARTY ON THEIR BOW, MR FLINT THEIR STERN!" several men with cutlasses and pistols readied themselves by Porter and Flint turned to see five men armed likewise under his wing for now. Flint put his rifle against the railing and feeling quite blood thirsty he drew his sword and admired how the steel of his blade shined like polished silver. The men behind him did not miss the berserker look in his eye and he turned to face them and he smiled baring his huge canines and he shouted "follow me!" and he ran to the railing and with all the super human strength in his legs he pushed himself off the railing and flew across the ten yards of space that had separated the Viper from her prey.

Flint's priorities where thus, find Paul, kill anyone who got in his way, a marksman who was covering the helmsman dropped his rifle and drew his short cutlass and his and Flint's swords locked and they stood face to face. Until flint drew back his left arm and punched him in the face sending him flying across the deck and over the railing into the dark abyss of space. Flint's blood was boiling and roiling and churning in his veins, the whole world seemed to be in slow motion, the viper just pulling alongside, the men pouring in at another.

While the two crews were wrestling with each other, Flint hopped on a railing and looked for his target, he saw Paul engaged with Mr. Porter in a sword fight, but Flint knew that the chances of Paul getting killed were high and if that were so the bounty would drop by half, something he could not afford. Flint ran to the other side of the ship weaving in between the duels of the surviving crews and came on Porter and Paul with blinding speed and smashed Paul in the face with the cup of his cutlass sending him unconscious instantly. Porter looked at Flint with hate in his eyes but he ignored it and grabbed Paul by his shirt collar and tossed him like a bad of feed on board the Viper.

Flint turned to porter and ordered him "Get the men back on board and cast off, I'm scudding this son of a bitch." Porter looked at him and nodded and Flint went down to the galley of the ship and he soon found what he was looking for, the engines were still running and the sails still making energy, but the ship only had so much battery, it she was reaching peak she would have to make the engines go faster to burn up the energy or furl the sails otherwise the engine would overload and explode.

Flint turned off the engine and smashed the control panel in with a shower of sparks and grinned evilly as he was the already full battery reaching critical mass in no time at all and he felt the viper pull off. He ran back up the stairs as fast as his feet could carry him and saw the Viper ten yards out and pulling away fast not knowing entirely what Flint had in mind, Flint had a running start but when he leapt off the railing he knew he wasn't going to make it, the ship was already 25 yards away and he was sure he would only make twenty. Right as his feet left the railing the engine overloaded and exploded propelling him higher and faster than he would have gone, but the ship was still pulling away and the crew held their breath as they saw him just miss the railing and fell out of sight. The youngest of them, Billy was the only one who ran forward to see what became of him and he saw Flint with his clawed hand digging deep in the oak planks with one hand and cutlass in the other, Billy smiled back.

**Review please! **


	4. Chapter 4

**You people are as mute as rocks, I need feedback! Don't own TP R&R**

Flint was hanging on the oak siding of the ship as far as his claws could dig in with his left hand, he managed to put his cutlass which had remained in his right hand the whole time in between his teeth and began scaling up the oak planks, by time he reached the railing Billy extended his arm and Flint took it an hauled him aboard. The entire crew gathered around Flint cheering madly, some pat him on the back and most gave him a look of approval.

The captain came up to Flint and just shook his head with a mad grin on his face "You know Flint, next time I say 'take the bow or something similar' please feel free to wait until the helmsman pulls up to the ship." Flint just shrugged "I can honestly say I don't know what came over me, if I had to guess I would say instincts." The captain howled with laughter and said "I really don't care what you call it and feel free to do it again I'm just saying just because you can leap the distance doesn't mean you have to."

"Well I think what he did was just plain foolish, first he leaves his men on the ship then he throws Paul aboard, he could've thrown him over board, then he blew up the sloop while we were still in range. He let his primal instincts get the better of him and he should be punished" said Mr. Porter. The captain turned a faced Porter with a quizzical look and his scales turned into a light red color. "So tell me, it was foolish of Mr. Flint here to take the worst beating for his men, take out Paul with one blow when you couldn't do it in twenty and blow up their ship with the remainder of her crew aboard saving us the effort. Mr. Flint here did what I asked and another 300% needlessly putting his life before his crew, he may have been a good mariner but I do declare he is a better warrior of the Etherium than you are Mr. Porter."

Most of the crews jaws hung slack and Mr. Porter looked baffled, and then turned to anger. "I would be a greater warrior then him if I had his physical talents" Porter said. "It is not about what you're born with but what you do with it" the captain said with a shrug and walked back to the helm. Flint decided the crew had enough drama for one day and shouted "alright check for wounded and haul the dead over board, Billy get this sack of crap to the brig" as he nudged Paul with his boot. "If people are standing around doing nothing I will _find_ work for you to do starting with getting a replacement sail up or changing damaged planks or mopping the _blood_ of the decks, now get MOVING!"

For the next week Flint considered what the captain said 'it's not about what you're born with but what you do with it". Deciding his body wasn't as fit as it could be Flint signed up for as many night watches as he could, he usually didn't sleep much anyways, always thinking about Caitlyn. So at the beginning of every watch he climbed up to the crow's nest and started doing pushups, he found them to be just a little too easy so he started to do vertical pushups, 300 per every hour on watch, as well as vertical curl ups from the ships rigging, about 500 of these.

Flint slowly felt himself become more and more stronger, in the next few days it seemed the crew neither thought good nor ill of Flint. While a fair officer he was a berserker in battle running off of animal like instincts, the fact that he looked like some six eyed dragon humanoid didn't really help his cause. He had since wiped clean, sharpened and polished his cutlass so it looked as new as they day he had received it and he and the captain sparred regularly, just to get his mind off things.

The only thing that worried him was the fact that Porter seemed to distance himself from Flint as much as he could, he could often be found on the opposite side of the deck if they had to be on the same deck together otherwise Porter could be found aloft or gambling below decks. Truthfully Flint didn't quite know what to make of this behavior, he had an idea what was going on but he didn't know how to fix it. He considered asking someone just so they could get along enough to help each other out in a desperate situation but he realized Porter was a grown man and could take care of himself. Deciding to leave well enough alone Flint just hoped that if he stopped worrying about it, it would just go away or never be important.


End file.
